Congress Forced to Face Up to the Pain Experienced by Unborn Children

Last week, Representative Trent Franks (R.-Ariz.) introduced legislation in the United States House of Representatives that would ban abortions after twenty weeks of pregnancy. The bill, HR 1797, is based on research establishing that unborn children can feel pain by at least twenty weeks of gestation, and very likely at an earlier age. As originally introduced, the bill would control abortions within the District of Columbia alone, but based on the evidence of horrific abuses at late term abortion facilities throughout the nation, the bill has been expanded to a nation-wide ban.

Jill Stanek, a preeminent pro-life writer, will be one of the people testifying at tomorrow’s Congressional hearing in support of the bill. Stanek lends her professional expertise on the bill to protect babies from excruciating pain they feel during abortions. Stanek, formally a registered nurse in the Labor and Delivery Department at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill., who exposed the fact that babies who survived abortion at the hospital were left to die without medical care. Read Ms. Stanek’s testimony.

Stanek and her family have faced harassment by the Federal Bureau of Investigation because of their pro-life activities. Life Legal Defense Foundation will continue to work with the Stanek family to ensure that their personal freedoms will not be violated, and that they do not face additional harassment because of Ms. Stanek’s testimony in support of the unborn.

“We are watching these proceedings and any follow up actions closely,” explained Dana Cody, Executive Director of Life Legal Defense Foundation. “It has been necessary for us to intervene on behalf of Jill and her family in the past. And we stand ready to do so again should she or those close to her be targeted.”

The testimony Stanek will provided before Congress emphasizes the following facts:

• There is a plethora of evidence countering claims that late term abortions are “rare.”

• The techniques being used to perform abortions are monstrous, as are the techniques used to murder those babies who beat the odds and survive the violent procedures intended to kill them.

• Life-saving prenatal surgery is becoming commonplace, even “mid-pregnancy” and is performed with anesthesia for the preborn babies to ease the pain they experience.

• Premature babies, born at the same age as babies violently aborted, are routinely given pain relief for procedures as simple as pinpricks to the heel.

• Kermit Gosnell’s clinic is illustrative of multiple cases that prove the lines between illegal infanticide and legal feticide have become blurred.

Stanek has testified twice before the Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives and in several state legislatures. Her testimony has been presented in key U.S. Congressional debates on the Partial Birth Abortion Ban and Born Alive Infants Protection Act.

“Jill is an acknowledged expert in the field,” explained Cody, “She has paid a price for that. That price should not extend to governmental interrogation, or the threat of deportation the FBI brought against her son-in-law last year because of the family’s pro-life work. LLDF applauds Jill for her courage in testifying on this important legislation.”

Action Item: Contact your member of congress and urge them to support HR 1797, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.